Thank you very much to the publishers and Netgalley for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Librarian Marcela Ortiz has been secretly in love with her best friend for years—and when he gets engaged, she knows it’s long past time to move on. But before she gets the chance, she has a bigger problem to contend with in the form of Theo Young, ex-NFL player and older brother of the man she’s in love with. When she discovers Theo’s plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée at their engagement party, Marcela is quick to stop him—despite how tempting it is to let him run away with the bride-to-be. She manages to convince Theo to sleep off his drunken almost-mistake at her place and when they arrive at a family brunch the next day together, everyone wrongly assumes they hooked up.
Since Theo needs a cover for his feelings for the bride and Marcela needs a distraction from her unrequited feelings for the groom, they decide to roll with the lie. Until one late night at a bar, they take it a step further and discover a layer of attraction neither realized existed. Soon, they find themselves exploring the simmering chemistry between them, whether in library aisles or Marcela’s bed. There are no boundaries for the rebound relationship they form—just a host of complicated feelings, messy familial dynamics, and uncovered secrets that threaten to tear them apart before they can even admit to themselves that their rebound is working. Maybe a little too well.
Over the past few months I’ve been seeing a lot about The Next Best Fling online which lead to me having high hopes going into reading it. Unfortunately, these hopes were not lived up to. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t love it for a mixture of reasons. That being said I do think it may be perfect for some people!
Librarian Marcela has been secretly in love with her best friend for years. But, when he gets engaged she knows it is time to move on. She has a bigger problem to deal with first in the form of Theo, an ex-NFL player and the older brother of her best friend. When she discovers Theo’s plans to confess his feelings for his brother’s fiancée, she stops him and manages to convince him to sleep off his almost-mistake at hers. But, when they arrive at a family brunch the next day, everyone wrongly assumes they hooked up and they can’t help but roll with the lie.
The concept of this book sounds exceptional but the execution was not completely there. That being said there were moments and characters I enjoyed throughout! Theo is sweet, caring and has such a big heart. I enjoyed the moments we had with him throughout the book. Marcela was so indecisive and in my opinion, very hard to get along with. Theo lays all his cards on the table whereas Marcela seems to keep everything from everyone no matter what. Their moments together were fun and it was lovely to watch their feelings for each other change.
One thing is very clear, the way that Ben (the best friend) is written makes you hate him instantly. That is very much as intended and I very much enjoyed reading about his downfall. There are a number of side characters in this book but I feel none of them were fully fleshed out. They all seemed very similar which was a shame.
This book discusses some heavier topics and it does this in a honest and raw way. There are discussions of emotional abuse and body image. The author has dealt with these in a wonderful way and I feel that should be applauded.
A personal issue I had with this book were surrounding Marcela’s job as a librarian. As a librarian myself, a few of the things she did in her role just rubbed me the wrong way. But, these are likely things other readers would not even question.
Even though this did not live up to all my expectations, it is still a very good debut. I will still be looking out for other books by the author and I’m excited to see their writing progress.
Overall, if you like family drama, love squares and unrequited love then this is the book for you! If you are on the look out for those things, I would recommend giving it a read.
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